On this day in 1979, composer of music and one of only two people to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize, Richard Rodgers, died in New York City at the age of 77. Born Richard Charles Rodgers into a German Jewish family in Arverne, Queens, New York on 28 June 1902. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. Rodgers composed music for more than 900 songs, for 43 Broadway musicals, films and television. My favorite Rodgers and Hart songs are; “Blue Moon”, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”, “My Funny Valentine”, “The Lady is a Tramp”, “Falling in Love with Love”, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”. My favorite Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are; “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'”, “People Will Say We’re in Love”, “If I Loved You”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, “It Might as Well Be Spring”, “Some Enchanted Evening”, “Getting to Know You”, “My Favorite Things”, “The Sound of Music”, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain. In 1930, Rodgers married Dorothy Belle Feiner. The other person with an EGOTP is Marvin Hamlisch.
The Final Footprint – Rodgers was cremated and his cremains were scattered at sea.
On this day in 2004, clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor, and writer Artie Shaw died in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 94. Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky on May 23, 1910 in New York City. In my opinion, one of jazz’s finest clarinetists, Shaw led one of the United States’ most popular big bands in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. Perhaps best known for his 1938 recording of Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine”. Before the release of “Beguine”, Shaw and his band had languished in obscurity for over two years. After its release, he became a major pop artist. The record eventually became one of the era’s defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of what became known much later as Third Stream music, which blended elements of classical and jazz forms and traditions. His music influenced other musicians, such as John Barry in England, with the vamp of the James Bond Theme, possibly influenced by “Nightmare”, which also has a similar vamp to Kurt Weill’s “Lonely House”.
Shaw also recorded with small jazz groups drawn from within the ranks of the various big bands he led. He served in the US Navy from 1942 to 1944, (during which time he led a morale-building band that toured the South Pacific amidst the chaos of World War II) and, following his discharge in 1944, he returned to lead a band through 1945. Following the breakup of that band, he began to focus on other interests and gradually withdrew from the world of being a professional musician and major celebrity, although he remained a force in popular music and jazz before retiring from music completely in 1954.
Shaw was married eight times. Two marriages were annulled; the others ended in divorce: Jane Cairns (1932–33; annulled); Margaret Allen (1934–37); actress Lana Turner (1939–1940); Betty Kern, the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern (1942–43); actress Ava Gardner (1945–46); Forever Amber author Kathleen Winsor (1946–48; annulled); actress Doris Dowling (1952–56), and actress Evelyn Keyes (1957–85). Both Turner and Gardner later described Shaw as being emotionally abusive. His controlling nature and verbal abuse drove Turner to have a nervous breakdown, soon after which she divorced him. In 1940, Shaw briefly dated actress Judy Garland and Lena Horne.
The Final Footprint
Shaw’s grave at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California, is marked by a full ledger bronze marker. Another notable final footprint at Valley Oaks is Karen Carpenter.
#RIP #OTD in 2014 film actress (The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth), the first to win back-to-back Oscars, Luise Rainer died at her Belgravia, London home at the age of 104 from pneumonia. Cremation
#RIP #OTD in 2020 actress (Mary Ann Summers on Gilligan’s Island, The Town that Dreaded Sundown) Dawn Wells died from COVID-19-related causes in Los Angeles, aged 82. Mountain View Cemetery, Reno, Nevada
#RIP #OTD in 2022 broadcast journalist and television personality (Today, ABC Evening News, 20/20, The View) Barbara Walters died at her home in Manhattan, aged 93. Lakeside Memorial Park, Doral, Florida
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